Photo: Netflix
Now that he's done ruining Transformers for everybody, Michael Bay moved on to other things. And it was the right choice, as his latest movie, 6 Underground, is a visual apocalypse of metal, flesh, and magnets.
The following is spoiler-free.
6 Underground is the latest release on the world's favorite streaming platform, Netflix. It stars Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, among others, and it's all about how a very rich guy (Elon Musk-rich) is trying to change the world by staging a coup d'état in a made-up country (this made-up country thing is annoying).
Reynolds, playing a guy known as One, made his billions by inventing some type of magnets used in all sorts of products, including electric cars. For reasons not entirely clear, he decides to stage his own death so that he can spend his money on weapons and tech to help him fight bad guys, free of the bureaucratic constraints a living individual has to face.
When the first trailer for 6 Underground hit back at the beginning of October, we said it packs in two minutes more car action than Hobbs and Shaw. And boy, were we right!
From the very first minutes, the movie drags the viewer into an insane high-speed chase through the narrow streets of Florence, Italy. The entire film is over 2 hours long, and this chase alone lasts for a whopping 17 minutes or so, throwing at you things you probably haven't seen before.
This scene, as the entire movie for that matter, is riddled with slow-motion filming, showing in detail the effects of impacts, gunshots, punches on cars, bodies, buildings. We get to see in incredible, slow-moving detail how a rocket-propelled grenade hits the nose of a bad guy before detonating inside his car, teeth flying out of a mouth (also belonging to a bad guy), and bodies being thrown around by explosions in ways we could never have imagined.
Being a movie about rich good guys going after equally rich bad guys means all sorts of luxury items are expendable, including (or especially) cars. Range Rover Sport SUVs are being shot to shreds, an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio wreaks havoc in Florence, and a Ferrari 488 Pista leaves its mark on Hong Kong. Not to mention the countless others being ripped apart in pure Michael Bay style, or squashed by falling metal girders.
Metal, bullets, and flesh fly everywhere in this movie, and are seen doing so following eye-pleasing trajectories and obeying strange laws of physics. At one point, for instance, an army of bad guys is being tossed around like ping-pong balls with the help of One's omnipotent magnets.
Reynolds (One) is somewhat his usual self, making you laugh just by looking at something a certain way. Sure, he's not as funny as in say The Hitman's Bodyguard, but his skill is still there.
The funniest of the bunch is Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (Three), who for the most part is a replica of Antonio Banderas of older times, only wittier and possibly even deadlier.
Mélanie Laurent (Two) is as ravishing as ever, but the other female member of the team, Adria Arjona (Five), aside from looking great on film, doesn't do much to help the cause.
Ben Hardy (Four), British as always, is in charge with jumping on and off buildings (we would have liked more of that) and getting left behind, Dave Franco (Six) is the driver of the said Alfa Romeo, and the man responsible for wrecking half of Florence, and Corey Hawkins (Seven) is the same wildcard we know him to be.
So, is 6 Underground worth 2 hours of your life? Hell, yes.
Don't except an award-winning script (or acting), the story gets somewhat confusing at one point, but the visual effects are insane, and definitely worth your while.
6 Underground is the latest release on the world's favorite streaming platform, Netflix. It stars Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, among others, and it's all about how a very rich guy (Elon Musk-rich) is trying to change the world by staging a coup d'état in a made-up country (this made-up country thing is annoying).
Reynolds, playing a guy known as One, made his billions by inventing some type of magnets used in all sorts of products, including electric cars. For reasons not entirely clear, he decides to stage his own death so that he can spend his money on weapons and tech to help him fight bad guys, free of the bureaucratic constraints a living individual has to face.
When the first trailer for 6 Underground hit back at the beginning of October, we said it packs in two minutes more car action than Hobbs and Shaw. And boy, were we right!
From the very first minutes, the movie drags the viewer into an insane high-speed chase through the narrow streets of Florence, Italy. The entire film is over 2 hours long, and this chase alone lasts for a whopping 17 minutes or so, throwing at you things you probably haven't seen before.
This scene, as the entire movie for that matter, is riddled with slow-motion filming, showing in detail the effects of impacts, gunshots, punches on cars, bodies, buildings. We get to see in incredible, slow-moving detail how a rocket-propelled grenade hits the nose of a bad guy before detonating inside his car, teeth flying out of a mouth (also belonging to a bad guy), and bodies being thrown around by explosions in ways we could never have imagined.
Being a movie about rich good guys going after equally rich bad guys means all sorts of luxury items are expendable, including (or especially) cars. Range Rover Sport SUVs are being shot to shreds, an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio wreaks havoc in Florence, and a Ferrari 488 Pista leaves its mark on Hong Kong. Not to mention the countless others being ripped apart in pure Michael Bay style, or squashed by falling metal girders.
Metal, bullets, and flesh fly everywhere in this movie, and are seen doing so following eye-pleasing trajectories and obeying strange laws of physics. At one point, for instance, an army of bad guys is being tossed around like ping-pong balls with the help of One's omnipotent magnets.
Reynolds (One) is somewhat his usual self, making you laugh just by looking at something a certain way. Sure, he's not as funny as in say The Hitman's Bodyguard, but his skill is still there.
The funniest of the bunch is Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (Three), who for the most part is a replica of Antonio Banderas of older times, only wittier and possibly even deadlier.
Mélanie Laurent (Two) is as ravishing as ever, but the other female member of the team, Adria Arjona (Five), aside from looking great on film, doesn't do much to help the cause.
Ben Hardy (Four), British as always, is in charge with jumping on and off buildings (we would have liked more of that) and getting left behind, Dave Franco (Six) is the driver of the said Alfa Romeo, and the man responsible for wrecking half of Florence, and Corey Hawkins (Seven) is the same wildcard we know him to be.
So, is 6 Underground worth 2 hours of your life? Hell, yes.
Don't except an award-winning script (or acting), the story gets somewhat confusing at one point, but the visual effects are insane, and definitely worth your while.
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